Example embodiments of the inventive concepts relate to package substrates and, more particularly, to package substrates including an embedded aluminum pad to which a surface treatment process is performed, methods for fabricating the same, and package devices including the package substrate.
Various techniques of treating a surface of a printed circuit board (PCB) have been developed as a density of electronic components increases. For example, metal plating techniques are used to treat the surface of the PCB. The metal plating techniques may include a chemical deposition technique, a metal sputtering technique, an electroplating technique, and an electroless metal plating technique. To cope with a demand for thin-plated and high-density PCBs, surfaces of PCBs have been plated or electroless-treated to simplify processes of fabricating PCBs and to mitigate or remove noise from the PCBs.
Further, researches of reducing thicknesses of PCBs have been conducted as the density of electronic components increases. An insulating layer and a pattern may be formed on a coreless PCB to fabricate a thin PCB, and the thin PCB may be applied to small electronic components. Furthermore, researches have been conducted to reduce pitches in the PCBs. A total area of a PCB may be reduced by the pitch reduction. Thus, researches are being conducted for various processes such as a tenting process, a semi additive process (SAP), and a modified additive process (MSAP).